A superb innings of 93 from Renfrew professional, Farhan Khan, proved not to be enough to prevent his side from losing their Scottish Cup tie against Stenhousemuir at The Tryst, on Sunday.
Renfrew skipper, Ryan Murray, filling in for the absent Shabir Baig, won the toss and elected to bat first, with the hope of posting an imposing total to defend.
Unfortunately, things didn’t quite go to plan, as the Royal Burgh lost opener Muhaymen Majeed for seven in the sixth over, and he was followed three balls later by the in-form Amrit Kalash, who didn’t trouble the scorers.
The loss of Kalash brought Farhan Khan to the wicket, but unfortunately couldn’t prevent the loss of further wickets.
Indeed, the visitors soon found themselves toiling with the total at 37 for 6 after nineteen overs, as the middle order batsmen, through a combination of tight bowling and interesting umpiring decisions, could not stick around.
Andrew Mullen briefly threatened to provide Farhan Khan with the necessary support with an innings of eleven, but when he too departed with the total on 52, things looked bleak.
The recovery was provided by Farhan Khan and Mohsin Majeed, who batted for forty minutes in support of his professional colleague, and helped halt the slide before he was dismissed with the score on 85 after 33 overs.
The momentum then changed as Khan and Waqas Arshad added a quick fire 48 for the ninth wicket in just five overs before Arshad was dismissed for 16 runs from just eight balls faced, with the score on 133.
Farhan Khan then coaxed a further 26 runs from the last wicket partnership with Sajid Majeed before he was the fourth player to be adjudged leg before for a well-played 93.
Farhan batted for 154 minutes and faced 108 balls, hitting five fours and five sixes, and was instrumental in dragging the Renfrew total to a respectable 159 in 40.3 overs, but crucially they had failed to utilise their allotted 50 overs.
For Stenhousemuir, Iain McDonald was the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 23 from his ten overs while Sahil Thakur and Nicky Rodgers chipped in with two wickets each.
In reply, Stenhousemuir lost an early wicket when Scott Young offered a return catch to Sajid Majeed for one, with the score on just two in the fourth over.
This brought Stenhousemuir professional, Rushdi Jappie to the wicket and the visitors knew that his early dismissal would be vital to any hopes of winning the match.
Unfortunately, he was in no mood to oblige and added 55 runs for the second wicket with his skipper, Ross Jones, before the latter was bowled by Waqas Arshad for 21, shortly after a break for rain.
There was a further break for rain, just before the scheduled drinks break, which coincided with the fall of the third wicket when Scott Bain was bowled for 6 by Farhan Khan.
The required score was then revised using DLS (Duckworth Lewis Stern) to account for the break in play, leaving the home to score 144 from 42 overs, and despite the further loss of both Callum Grant (5) and Iain McDonald (10) to the bowling of Mohsin Majeed, Rushdi Jappie guided his team home with more than three overs to spare.
The home sides’ South African professional finished on 86 not out, having batted for 136 minutes and facing 98 balls in an innings that contained eleven boundaries and one six.
For Renfrew Mohsin Majeed (2 for 16), Farhan Khan (1 for 26), Sajid Majeed (1 for 35) and Waqas Arshad (1 for 25) all contributed well with the ball, but in truth their total of 159 wasn’t likely to be enough, as Stenhousemuir secured a five-wicket victory.
On a brighter and more positive note both Muhaymen Majeed and Rafay Khan made their first team debuts in this match, following some good performances in the second eleven, and acquitted themselves very well.
Next up for Renfrew is a home match against Greenock in the McCulloch Cup at Renfrew on Wednesday.
This is followed by a trip to Hamilton Crescent to play First Division pacesetters West of Scotland, while the clubs second eleven Deanpark welcome East Kilbride’s second eleven, Torrance House, to the Deanpark Oval.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the club’s development eleven are scheduled to take on West of Scotland in the Sunday League.